Argentine Ambassador dismissed over lobbying U.S. for Armaments.
| Autor | Gaudin, Andres |
A leaked letter from the Argentine government to a US congressperson has revealed an ambitious military rearmament program aimed at "facing critical global threats" and a request for support for that program. Although, thanks to the complacency of major media empires, President Mauricio Macri quickly managed to mitigate the negative echoes of his request for help, the letter to the US Congress signed by Ambassador Martin Lousteau has resulted in the diplomat's loss of accreditation, and in an investigation by the federal prosecutor.
Request for US military equipment
The letter was sent on June 16, 2016, to US Rep. Pete Visclosky, an Indiana Democrat and the ranking member of the strategic Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. In it, Lousteau reminded Visclosky of a meeting the congressperson held with two Argentine legislators the previous April. At the time, the legislators--without congressional authorization but speaking as if they were representing the will of the legislature in Buenos Aires--pointed out that Argentina needed "help from the United States to improve its capacity to deal with urgent global threats: combating terrorism, drug trafficking, and organized crime." In the letter, Lousteau lobbied for the US Congress to include Argentina in the budget for US assistance to foreign operations. A month after the letter was sent, Congress approved a $52 million budget item for military equipment earmarked for several countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, Mexico, and Colombia, but not Argentina.
In his letter to Visclosky, Lousteau provided a list of equipment requested by the Argentine Army, Air Force, and Navy: 64 Bell, Cobra, Chinook, and Black Hawk helicopters; 182 Stryker tanks (five versions) equipped with 50-calibre machine guns, 105mm cannons, and Javelin missile launchers; 36 airplanes, including T-6 Texans, F-16 Fighting Falcons and Orions; and 24 armored amphibious fighters. Included in this list of powerful armaments that, according to specialists, are not apt for the tasks mentioned in the letter, is a request for TASER guns for the Cruz del Sur Peace Force, a little-known joint Argentine-Chilean project that is considered a platform for UN intervention. According to Argentina's Ministry of Defense website, the Cruz del Sur Peace Force carried out joint operations last October about "negotiation, personnel registration, convoy escorts, and base operations, as well as an anti-riot action."
Letter leaked on cable TV
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